


How To Fall In Love In Five Easy Steps

by axiumin



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Gender-neutral Reader, Light Angst, M/M, Other, Pining, Reader-Insert, Reader-Interactive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-29
Updated: 2019-01-29
Packaged: 2019-10-18 17:57:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17585606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/axiumin/pseuds/axiumin
Summary: If you really thought about it, you could clearly identify exactly when and how you fell in love, and it was the startling clarity of this process that made you wonder if you would ever write down these stages. You thought maybe you’d call it “How to Fall in Love in Five Easy Steps.”





	How To Fall In Love In Five Easy Steps

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a request by tumblr user @kalmamila: "Hi, I loved your exo's scenarios, I always see people saying they ship Kyungsoo with a calm S/O. Can you do a scenario where he dated a more animated/energetic S/O (with a personality similar to Chanyeol maybe?). Sorry for any typo, I'm Brazilian 😊😊"
> 
> Cross-posted from tumblr. Come say hi @axiumin!

You were a lover of life. It was a personal goal to experience as much as you could in the short, wonderful time you had on this earth, and you lived every day doing just that. You could be loud, brash, even obnoxious at times, but you could never bring yourself to deny any of the traits— even the bad ones— that made you who you were. You had too many things to do without having to worry about toning yourself down.

It was this philosophy that allowed you to explore new places, try new hobbies, and meet new people at every turn. And it was this philosophy that allowed you to tread into hitherto uncharted territory for you: love.

If you really thought about it, you could clearly identify exactly when and how you fell in love, and it was the startling clarity of this process that made you wonder, if only for a moment, if you would ever write down these stages. You thought maybe you’d call it “How to Fall in Love in Five Easy Steps.”

_Step 1: Be yourself._

Sometimes, having a large friend group could make for some awkwardness. If there were enough people, there were bound to be some who you got along with more than others.

To be more precise, it wasn’t as if you didn’t get along with Kyungsoo so much as you just really never had the chance to get to know him properly. He was one of the quieter members of your friend group, and considering how easy it was for you to fall in line with the more energetic, outgoing people, it was far too easy to overlook him.

It was never really in your nature to just go along with whatever was easiest, though, so you decided that you were going to do something to fix this. You were going to get to know Kyungsoo better, because that’s just what you do.

Not one to waste time, you decided to put your plan in action the next time your friends met up for dinner. You gave the customary greetings to your friends, but rather than lingering with Chanyeol or Baekhyun as you normally did, you settled into an empty seat next to Kyungsoo, much to his consternation.

He looked at you with wide, startled eyes. And yeah, you supposed that was fair. You’d never really exchanged more than a couple of words with him, and really, his surprise was just a reminder of your failures as a friend.

He was clearly aware of your presence, but he made no move to say anything, even as the group had naturally broken into smaller conversations. You cleared your throat and decided to take initiative for him.

“How was your day today, Kyungsoo?” you asked, smiling brightly.

“It was good, thank you,” he said, voice quiet and polite. His still-wide eyes flicked over to Jongin, who was sitting on his other side, but he didn’t seem to find the answers he was looking for there. You knew he was a bit shy, so you figured that it was good that you were outgoing enough for the two of you.

“That’s good! Did you do anything fun, then?”

He looked around again, and this time you did, too, hoping that maybe he’d feel less pressure if you didn’t stare at him while he was answering. You accidentally caught eyes with Baekhyun at the other end of the table, who just pointed at the seat next to him and raised his eyebrows to you in question. You shrugged. You’d explain later.

You turned back to Kyungsoo to see his eyes dart between you and Baekhyun. When he noticed you were looking at him, he smiled tentatively.

“I didn’t really do anything interesting.” His voice was still quiet.

You were about to protest that something interesting ought to have happened during his day, but the food arrived, bringing a new potential topic with it. Far be it from you to let a good opportunity pass you by.

“Say, Kyungsoo, you enjoy cooking, don’t you? Have you ever cooked anything like this before?”

Talking about someone’s hobbies was usually a great way to get them invested in a conversation, and Kyungsoo was no different. His voice stayed low and quiet the whole conversation, your voice loud and clear as ever in contrast, but you supposed that was just part of who you two were.

The important thing is that by the time you said your goodbyes that evening, exchanging hugs with everyone, you were sure that you and Kyungsoo were well on your way to friendship.

_Step 2: Get up close and personal._

“What are you watching?” you asked, smiling sheepishly when Kyungsoo jumped and pulled his headphones out. “Sorry,” you chuckled.

“It’s okay.” Kyungsoo smiled back, small but genuine, and you marked that as a success of the conversations you’d had the last few times you’d met up with your friends. He still spoke softly, but he didn’t seem to be as hesitant around you anymore, and he’d even been one to approach you first a couple of times.

Today, though, he had been sitting on the couch, raptly watching whatever was playing on his tablet when you walked in. Unable to resist temptation, you had leant over the back of the couch to peer at the screen. Then, of course, you startled him.

You nodded at the screen. “An English movie?” you asked, eyeing the subtitles.

Kyungsoo nodded.

“Yeah, it had good reviews and I haven’t seen it before, so I thought I would give it a try. It’s actually pretty interesting so far.”

You stroked your chin and hummed in an exaggerated gesture of thought.

“Okay, I’m sold,” you shrugged. “Scoot over.”

“What?”

You walked around to the front of the couch and nudged at Kyungsoo’s legs until he got the hint and let them slide off the cushions. You settled into the space his legs once occupied and made yourself nice and cozy against his side, leaning against his shoulder so you could have a clear view of his tablet screen. You placed one of his headphones in your ear with a murmur of “sharing is caring” and settled in to watch the movie.

A second passed, and the screen stayed paused. You looked up at Kyungsoo expectantly.

“Well? What are you waiting for?”

Kyungsoo looked a bit taken aback by your forwardness, but he was quick to shake it off, putting his part of the shared headphones in his ear and pressing play. It was a bit strange, picking up in the middle of a foreign movie, but you tried to follow along as best as you could, reluctant for once to speak up and interrupt when Kyungsoo looked this this intent.

The two of you stayed snuggled up together, watching the movie silently. Eventually, for lack of a comfortable position, Kyungsoo’s arm came to rest around your shoulders. Once more, you found your mouth curling into a small smile: this was a victory of friendship if you’d ever seen it. You stayed smug in your small victory until your movie was interrupted by Junmyeon.

“Are you ready to go, Y/N?” he asked, far too used to your cuddly tendencies to be properly surprised to see you on the couch with Kyungsoo.

“Oh yeah,” you said, blinking owlishly. You had forgotten that you came over to meet up with Junmyeon in the first place. By the time you arrived, he had just barely started getting ready, so you had gone to the living room to kill some time, only to find Kyungsoo instead.

You checked the time. It had been nearly an hour since you arrived.

“You sure know how to make a friend wait,” you snorted. Sighing, you began the careful process of separating yourself from Kyungsoo, who was beginning to frown.

“There’s still twenty minutes left in the movie,” he protested, though he let you slip from underneath his arm easily.

You grinned at him, flattered that he apparently wanted you to stick around.

“That’s okay. You can just tell me how the movie ends the next time we meet up. Or you can come with us, if you’d like! We were just going to do some shopping,” you said brightly, wondering why you were suddenly hopeful to spend the rest of the day with him.

Kyungsoo shook his head, and you tamped down the unexpected pang of disappointment.

“You two have fun.”

With a smile and a gentle pat on his shoulder, you took your leave, nagging at Junmyeon about how long he takes to get ready. Kyungsoo watched you go.

_Step 3: Be persistent._

“Please?”

“No.”

“ _Pretty_ please?”

Kyungsoo eyed you skeptically. You just batted your eyelashes at him. He rolled his eyes and let his shoulders slump in defeat.

“Fine.”

“Yes! Thank you!” you crowed, grabbing ahold of Kyungsoo’s arm and jostling him excitedly. Ever since the movie, Kyungsoo had been incredibly tolerant of your touchiness, and you had taken advantage of this shamelessly.

You didn’t spend much time dwelling on why it was, exactly, that you felt the need to touch him more than your other friends.

“Look, it’s totally cool. I already have an itinerary sort of planned out, and I noted some of the more interesting talks we could go to. I promise it won’t be as boring as it sounds!”

Somehow, when you had asked around to see who among your friends would be willing to go to the book festival with you, all of them either magically became super busy or just flat-out said no. Kyungsoo was the only one who had shown any sort of hesitation, so you jumped on that and kept pushing until he finally relented. He still didn’t look too convinced, even as he shrugged on his jacket and slipped on some shoes.

“Maybe a film festival would have been more interesting,” Kyungsoo mused. You shrugged.

“I think you’re just underestimating how interesting books can be. Besides, I’m sure they’ll have some good cookbooks. Or self-help books, if you’re really sitting there, questioning your life choices.”

You supposed a book festival would sound kind of boring to most people, but it really was so much more than a couple of stands selling some dry, dusty books. You hoped Kyungsoo finally began to understand that when you two arrived at the festival to find it packed with a wide array of stalls selling everything from books and book-related memorabilia to snacks and festival novelties. An impressive crowd weaved in and out of these stalls, and the clamor of excited voices was like music to your ears.

A quick glance at Kyungsoo revealed that he was somehow not as thrilled to see the crowd.

“See? I told you it wasn’t going to be boring. Just look at all these people! There must be _some_ appeal if they’re all here, don’t you think?” you cajoled, nudging your shoulder against his.

He shook his head.

“I think this is even worse than I imagined.”

“And what did you imagine?”

A shrug.

“A big exhibition hall filled with a few bookstands and people? Something quiet.”

“That’s a library, dear.” You shook your head, eager to hurry up and get a move on. “Come on, let’s go!”

Kyungsoo still seemed reluctant, but your insistence was enough to get him to delve into the crowd with you. If you held hands the entire afternoon, then it was just because neither one of you wanted to get lost.

_Step 4: Don’t take it personally._

“ _Oh_ , she looks nice, doesn’t she?”

You craned your neck to see who Chanyeol was gesturing at. Your stomach did some sort of weird flip when you saw Kyungsoo talking to a girl while he waited in line to order. She said something that made him laugh. Shit, she _did_ look nice.

Shrugging, you eyed your coffee, trying to determine if you could blame it for the weird feeling in your stomach. But you knew denial would only get you so far, so you just sighed and resolved to think about this later.

“She does,” you replied simply, shoving a bit of croissant in your mouth so you wouldn’t have to elaborate.

But Chanyeol wasn’t paying attention anyway. He was still staring at Kyungsoo, mischievous smile playing at his lips.

“I wonder if she’s his type?” he mused. You perked up a bit at this, despite your best judgment.

“His type?” you echoed back. Chanyeol shrugged.

“Yeah, a shy guy like him, he probably likes sweet, quiet girls. You know, someone laid-back and low energy. Cute and simple.”

With every word he said, your heart sank. You knew that you were pretty loud and energetic, and you could be a bit much at times. But you’d never really considered that it might bother Kyungsoo. After the first time you’d had a real conversation, you just assumed that you two got along perfectly well. He certainly never complained about your antics.

Then again, you didn’t think Kyungsoo would be the kind of person to tell you if you annoyed him, at least not so directly. You had to wonder if maybe he found you obnoxious and you just never realized.

Self-consciousness wasn’t new to you, but it seemed somehow to affect you more now than it ever had before, making you feel small and out of place in a way that was both novel and terrible. Suddenly, you feared you didn’t have control of your facial expression. You decided to take a sip of your coffee, letting the large mug hide as much of your face as it could while you schooled your expression into one of partial interest.

Just in time, Chanyeol looked back at you, eyes glittering.

“I guess we’ll find out soon. He’s coming back now!”

A quick glance over your shoulder confirmed that Kyungsoo was indeed returning with his drink, blessedly alone. As friendly as you usually were, you were afraid you wouldn’t know how to act like a normal human being if you had to talk to that girl. Somehow, you felt like your charisma would fail you.

Kyungsoo barely had time to slide into the booth next to you when Chanyeol began.

“Did you get her number?”

Kyungsoo froze halfway through blowing on his drink, looking up at Chanyeol with wide eyes. Chanyeol snickered. Kyungsoo’s expression was certainly comical, and you no doubt would have laughed with Chanyeol if you hadn’t felt so off-balance.

Kyungsoo’s eyes darted to you, looking for some sort of answer, but he only seemed to find more questions. Finally, he set his drink back down.

“Whose number?”

Chanyeol scoffed.

“That girl you were chatting up in line. She seemed cute and sweet, and she totally looked like she was into you.”

Kyungsoo glanced at you again.

“We were just making small talk,” he insisted, the tips of his ears turning pink.

Chanyeol, delighting in Kyungsoo’s embarrassment, slammed a hand on the table and gasped, drawing looks from nearby patrons.

“Just small talk? The way you were smiling at each other? No way! You should go over and talk to her again! She’s totally your type!” Chanyeol turned to you. “Right, Y/N?”

Both of them were looking at you now, and you froze. You realized that you’d been too quiet during that exchange, far quieter than you would have been any other day, teasing any other person.

You wanted to make a glib comment and deflect attention to someone else, but your voice got caught in your throat. What could you even say in a situation like this? You didn’t want to cast suspicion on yourself by defending Kyungsoo against Chanyeol when he was clearly just playfully teasing him, but the alternative was to encourage Kyungsoo to pursue this girl, and that thought was somehow intolerable to you.

Finally, after a long moment, you unfroze and smiled, bright and insincere.

“What do you think, Kyungsoo?” you asked, voice just teasing enough that you could pretend you were playing along and not desperately handing the conversation back to anyone else. You ignored his concerned look.

Jealousy was by and large a foreign feeling to you, and it was discomfiting to know that it could settle so easily over your shoulders like a heavy shroud just because of a little bit of harmless teasing. You just had to take a deep breath and remind yourself not to take it personally.

_Step 5: Fall._

You had always been the loud one, the brash one, the confident one. So why was it that you were constantly tip-toeing around Kyungsoo these days? It was amazing how simple feelings could turn you skittish and hesitant. Then again, you supposed the feelings you had for Kyungsoo weren’t so simple after all.

It was difficult to come to terms with the depth of your regard for him. In all your life, you had always seemed to be too bright and untamable, untouched by love because you never slowed down enough for it to catch you. Well, you were caught now, and you were _panicking_.

You supposed you’d have to get over your panic one way or another, though. Tonight was your bi-weekly movie night with Kyungsoo, and there was no way you were going to back out of that— especially not since Kyungsoo had already texted you earlier, asking if you still wanted to come over.

Clearly, Kyungsoo had picked up on your avoidance, and now you had to deal with both the implications of that and the _guilt_ you felt for having avoided him. Really, it’s not like it’s _his_ fault you went and caught feelings for him.

All you had to do was act normal. Just behave like you always did with Kyungsoo— a little bit invasive, a little bit teasing— and maybe things could start to go back to the way they were.

Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. Kyungsoo opened the door, looking happy and relieved to see you.

“Y/N! You made it.” He opened the door wider and stepped aside to let you enter.

You smiled and shrugged, contriving to look casual.

“I told you I would, didn’t I?” you said, proud when your voice came out steady and lightly teasing.

It didn’t take long for you to choose a movie and your snacks, which meant that you didn’t have much time to prepare yourself for your next obstacle: cuddling. It was habit for you two to cuddle while watching movies, having set the precedent the very first time you shared the movie on his tablet. Usually, that was a good thing since Kyungsoo was an excellent cuddler. But today, it took all of your willpower to curl up on the couch beside Kyungsoo, pressing yourself against the side.

You hadn’t counted on the way you’d melt into him, your body automatically relaxing. Being near him felt warm and _right_ , and you suddenly realized how much you’d missed him while you were busy trying to run away from your feelings.

You sighed, wondering if it wouldn’t be so bad to just suck it up and tell him about your feelings. Who knew? Maybe something good would come out of it.

But before you could speak, Kyungsoo beat you to it.

“I’m really glad you came tonight, Y/N. I feel like I haven’t seen you a lot lately.” His arm, wrapped around your shoulders, squeezed you gently. “I missed you.”

You lifted your head off of his shoulder to properly see him, and he turned his head to face you. Your faces were close, and from here, it seemed like all you could see were his wide, sincere eyes and the slight downward turn at the corner of his mouth.

“Why were you avoiding me?” he asked, and the contrast between the softness of his voice and the directness of the question struck you. You couldn’t be anything but honest.

“I love you.”

His expression changed, not into one of surprise as you had expected, but into one of confirmation. He smiled, bright and open and ready, and it took your breath away.

You realized then that you hadn’t given Kyungsoo enough credit. You pushed him away for fear of your feelings for him, dizzying and unnerving as they had been. But as inevitable as gravity, you fell anyway.

And he caught you.


End file.
